The Gambian First Division League champions, Wallidan FC, have pulled out of this year's Caf Champions League competition, Observer Sports has been reliably informed.

Wallidan were billed to take on Morocco's Ittihad Zemouri in their first leg away tie fixed between January 30 and February 1, 2009, with the return leg due in Banjul fortnight later.

Barely weeks before the fixture, however, the Blues Boys' top official has made it clear that they won't be participating due to financial contraints. Wallidan's founding father, Alhaji OB Conateh, has told Observer Sports that the club cannot foot the bill even though they would have loved to participate in the continent's premier inter-club competition.

"Our monthly expenditure on the club makes it impossible to raise the needed fund to participate. Clubs in other countries are participating because they have sponsors, but in our own case it's a different story. We manage ourselves without any assistance from outside," he said.

Wallidan's withdrawal makes it the second consecutive year that the Gambian team are pulling out of CAF competition, and the former GFA boss wants to believe that the incessant withdrawal of Gambian teams will do no better for Gambian football.  "Something must be done to tilt the trend. As a former president of the Gambia Football Association, I know vividly that the Football Association cannot do it, yet there could be a way out."

"We must try and get companies on board as is the case in  countries like Nigeria and Ghana. It is only Africell that is helping and efforts must be made to get other companies on board."